In response to the lawsuit, filed by an Indian-origin naturalised US citizen, Purushothaman Rajaram, Fb allegedly prefers to rent staff on short-term (H-1B) work permits over US residents as that allows the corporate to pay decrease wages.
ET has seen a replica of the submitting. Meta didn’t reply to ET’s e mail in search of remark.
Rajaram has accused the corporate of violating federal civil rights regulation by treating him otherwise as a result of he’s a US citizen.
“When hiring for US positions, Fb considers United States residents, lawful everlasting residents (e.g., inexperienced card holders), and international residents with correct work permits (e.g., H-1B or L-1 visa holders). However whereas visa holders make up only a fraction of the USA labour market, Fb prefers to rent visa-dependent staff for sure US positions, as it might probably pay these workers lower than American staff performing the identical work,” the lawsuit says.
Rajaram, who moved to the USA from India, has virtually 20 years of expertise in resolution architecting and delivering enterprise PLM software program options to Fortune 500 firms. He was thought-about for employment by Fb on two events in 2020 and claims that he was handed over in favour of a employee with an H-1B visa.
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This isn’t the primary time that the US-based firm is going through authorized motion associated to alleged discriminatory hiring practices.
In October 2021, Fb agreed to pay the US Division of Justice over $14 million to settle the same cost.
In response to Rajaram’s criticism, Fb is an H-1B visa dependent employer, which means that 15% or extra of its US workforce of over 34,600 persons are on H-1B visas.
The corporate hires short-term visa holders both straight or by means of third-party distributors like
and Accenture.
“And, as Fb’s US workforce continues to develop, so does its
on H-1B visa staff, as indicated by the elevated variety of H-1B visa approvals…,” his lawsuit alleges.
Over the previous 9 years, Fb has secured over 20,000 H-1B visas (together with recent visas, visa extensions, and visa amendments) for its US workforce, the submitting says, noting that the variety of H-1B visas awarded to Fb elevated from 412 in 2013 to five,100 in 2022.
Over time, the variety of H-1B work visas issued to American firms like Fb has been outstripping Indian providers firms as they flip to nations like India for area of interest tech expertise. The US points 85,000 new H-1B visas yearly, of which over 70% are awarded to Indian nationals.
